MACAU, CHINA, 26 July 2013 – The APT 2013 Macau continues to thrill as defending Asian Poker Tour Player of the Year, UK’s Sam Razavi, brings himself right back into contention for back-to-back title shots after taking down the HK$3,300 Mix Game PLH/PLO Event 3.
However, this may come at the expense of his love life as Ravazi defeated fiancé Menchu Esdaile heads-up to take the title. Razavi saw off challenges from the 32-strong field to make the final table, where he saw off over 50 percent of the remaining field, busting all four of the ‘In The Money’ finishers in quick succession to earn himself a HK$30,700 pay day.
After reaching heads-up play with a commanding 3-1 chip lead it didn’t take long for Razavi to end Esdaile’s dreams of POY leaderboard dominance – had she won here she would have wrestled the top spot from Denmark’s Kristian Faering.
The two got all the chips in pre-flop during the first round of heads-up Pot Limit Omaha, Razavi’s A♥ A♦K♥ 2♠ leading Esdaile’s J♣ 10♣ 9♦ 8♠.
Despite Esdaile flopping a big wrap when the first three cards came down 7♥ 7♣ 8♥ and picking up a backdoor club draw on the K♣ turn, the river bricked out to give Razavi the title (and prime sleeping spot on the sofa later we guess…).
“I had a feeling Macau would be the turning point,’ said Sam after his victory, ‘this now brings me back into contention in the Player of the Year race so there is still all to play for.”
While this result brings Razavi back into the mix and catapults him up into sixth place on the APT POY leaderboard he is still behind to fiancé Menchu Esdaile who is sitting pretty in fourth. Both players still have a lot of work to do if they want to challenge Kristian Faering’s lead.
The Event 3 Mix Game results are as follows:
1st Place: Sam Razavi, HK$30,700, 210 POY pts.
2nd Place: Menchu Esdaile, HK$20,700, 147 POY pts.
3rd Place: Hoi Chun Wong, HK$16,400, 105 POY pts.
4th Place: Zhen Iven Cai, HK$13,800, 92.4 POY pts.
5th Place: Ben Wilson, HK$12,600, 79.8 POY pts.
Another player who will be happy with the way things have turned out on the second day of the APT Macau is Australia’s Michael ‘Marvs’ Marvanek who triumphed over a star-studded field in the HK$50,000 High Rollers Event 4.
With high calibre players the likes of 2005 WSOP Main Event Champion Joe Hachem, High Roller specialist Nick Wong, Australia’s Julian Powell, Poker King Club CEO Winfred Yu, Sweden’s Martin Nilsson, PokerStars Macau Marketing Manager Fred Leung and APT POY Sam Razavi and HK$946,700 up for grabs this was never going to be an easy task.
Despite coming into the final table as one of the shorter stacks and becoming perilously shorter as the bubble reared its ugly head Marvanek staged a late comeback with the help of Pocket Kings, which were good enough to see off Winfred Yu’s Ace Queen to take a big bite out of the chip leader’s stack.
With only the top five spots paying out and Yu now dangerously short the tables had turned. Yu moved all-in from the button shortly afterwards with K♥ 6♥ and Marvanek woke up in the blinds with Ace Queen, which held to burst the bubble and send Yu home empty handed.
Now second in chips Marvanek pulled all the tricks out of the bag to further cement his lead, limping under-the-gun with Pocket Aces. A short-stacked Nick Wong took the bait moving all-in from the Button with Ace Three before Peter Chan re-shipped from the big blind with Pocket Queens.
Marvanek snapped the jaws of the trap shut and felted both players to take play heads-up against Russia’s Artem Lobus. Both players were fairly even in chips but Marvanek played a patient game to slowly chip away at Lobus’ stack and take the lead.
Down to his last 30,000 with blinds at 3,000/6,000 with a 1,000 ante Lobus found Pocket Kings to double up but his comeback was short lived. A scant few hands later in a limped pot on a flop of 8♠ 6♥ 5♦ the two got all the chips in, Marvanek’s 8♣ 6♣ for top two pair leading Lobus’ 7♣ 2♦ open-ended straight draw.
The J♥ turn kept Marvanek firmly in the drivers seat and the 5♥ river sealed the deal to award the Australian the title and the rather juicy HK$407,100 for first place.
The rest of the High Roller final pay outs were:
1st Place: Michael Marvanek ,HK$407,100, 200 POY pts.
2nd Place: Artem Lobus, HK$255,600, 140 POY pts.
3rd Place: Ping San “Peter” Chan HK$160,900, 100 POY pts.
4th Place: Nick Wong, HK$123,100, 88 POY pts.
Action resumes on Friday 26 July at 1pm with the HK$4,400 Head Hunter Event 5 and the HK$1,000 Ladies of Poker Event 6 with the Main Event getting underway on Saturday 27 July.
For media inquiries, you may contact:
Monique De Jesus
Email: [email protected]
